Comments

While it certainly is not common, I believe this is the second NOAA avalanche warning of this winter season. In NH, avalanche warnings are generally for the highest ravines in the Whites over 4000 ish feet such as Tuckerman , Huntington and the like. These are issued for back country skiers, hikers, and climbers. And it certainly is impressive. Four to six feet of snow in a week will cause slide issues more often than not in avalanche terrain.

People, including at least one skier several years ago, have been killed by avalanches on Mt. Washington. I think that skier was knocked down and buried in the Gulf of Slides, but I could be wrong about the location.

In the fabled winter of 1968-69, when Mt. Washington measured a total 566 inches of snow, at least one slide came off the upper mountain and crossed the fire trail up to Tuckerman Ravine. I remember hiking in for skiing on July 6, 1969, and seeing trees broken off seven or more feet above the ground, which meant that the snow was that deep on the trail in the avalanche path. Impressive.

Not that uncommon and completely appropriate back on 2/16. We've had layer after layer this month. If you dug a test pit in my front you'd be horrified by the fluff/ice/flush/slush/fluff/ice/sun-baked layers!